In a Michigan school district, two parents have challenged an AP English class assignment to read Beloved by Toni Morrison.
The controversial challenge has generated an impressive response in the Plymouth-Canton community, and the school district is currently deciding if they should act on the challenge.
You can share your opinion in the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Board of Education suggestion box. Follow this link to email: suggestions@pccsmail.net. According to the board site, “suggestions are reviewed weekly by the Board and your idea may be shared publicly at a Board of Education meeting.”
Earlier this week, parents Matt Dame and Barb Dame criticized the book at a school panel debating the assignment. School officials will release a decision soon.
Here’s more from Patch: “Barb Dame argued that Beloved was a fictitious account set upon its real-life backdrop of slavery, and contained gratuituous language, violence and sex acts that provide no historical context for the reader. She also argued the book was given an 870 Lexile rating, which rates the complexity of the language within a work. A Lexile score of 870 equates to about a fifth-grade reading level. She compared its Lexile rating to Roald Dahl‘s James and the Giant Peach.” (Via Page Views)